Family retreat weekend to Felda Residence Hot Springs, Sungkai, Perak

Last week, my family had a nice retreat weekend to Felda Residence Hot Springs, Sungkai, Perak.

Sungkai is a small town near to Bidor, accessible from either North-South Expressway or federal trunk road.

The Felda Residence Hot Springs is quite some distance away from Sungkai town, hiding deep inside an oil palm plantation area. Not to be worried, there are a lot of sign boards showing the way to this attraction along the way, so it is pretty easy to find.

We booked a 3-bedroom villa from MATTA Fair quite some times ago. The price was RM600 for one night stay including breakfast for 6 persons.

After entering the entrance, we need to register our stay and get the key of the villa from the reception, located in a building with a large car park in front of it. The hot springs park and villas are located quite some distance away from the reception building.

The 3-bedroom villa is very nice. It has a quadrangle design with a private Jacuzzi at the center.

It has a nice living room with flat panel TV...

... and a fully furnished kitchen.

Its 3 bedrooms are large and comfortable. This is the master bedroom.

The Felda Residence Hot Springs has a cold mountain springs swimming pool...

... and of course, the natural hot springs pool.

In the place where hot springs flow out from underground, we can have egg boiling activity. The water temperature there is close to 100 degree Celcius.

We had our dinner in Sungkai town. There are a few famous Chinese restaurant in the town, such as Choy Kee (财记) and Sun Kee (新记).

The next morning, we had our buffet breakfast at the restaurant within walking distance from the villa. There is nothing much to shout about the food, but considered quite OK if you don't have high expectation.

One thing to note is that, Celcom has a good HSDPA Internet coverage at Felda Residence Hot Springs in Sungkai, while the Internet speed of Maxis and Digi there is pretty slow.

Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 4000 - my first wireless mouse

Recently the mouse attached to my desktop PC became less responsive and less precise to scrolling, and I decided to replace it.

I have been using wired mouse all the while, be it PC or laptop. Wired mouse has the advantages of being cheaper price, lightweight, operates without the need of battery, and precise pointer handling.

However, wireless mouse is cool, can operate quite a long distance away from the computer, and its price gap with wired mouse has gone narrower and narrower. I decided to give it a try.

I have finalized my selection between Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 4000 and Logitech Couch M515 Mouse. Their similarity being able to work on almost all type of surfaces, can scroll sideway by tilting the scroll wheel, and has a comparatively bigger size than most other wireless mice (though still slightly smaller than normal wired desktop mouse).

The price of Logitech Couch M515 Mouse is higher, and I doubt the M515 is still in production as it can hardly be found in the market. Therefore, I settled down with Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 4000, which cost me around RM70 (bought from Lazada with credit card discount campaign).

The Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 4000 comes with a nano transceiver running on 2.4Ghz wireless technology. It can be stowed at the bottom of the mouse, which will intelligently turn off the power of the mouse. When first plugged into the USB port of my PC, the installation program is automatically loaded, and it will automatically pair with the mouse.

All the 4 buttons on the mouse (left button, right button, scroll wheel button and left button) are programmable with Microsoft Mouse and keyboard Center which is automatically downloaded and installed when first use.

The wheel button can be used to quickly flip through opened applications in Windows 7. It is be programmed for other function too.

The scrolling speed of its wheel is also programmable.

I like the smooth scrolling of this Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 4000, particularly the accelerated vertical scrolling function.

This is a 1,000dpi mouse, which I find it moving quite slow on the screen. This can easily be solved by setting the pointer speed to be faster under Windows' Control Panel > Mouse Properties > Pointer Options.

Despite it weights heavier than my previous wired mouse, and the need of changing battery in the future, I like this mouse very much for its ergonomic design and size, good set of programmable functionalities, precise BlueTrack Technology that can even work on glossy surface, and being wireless with freedom to operate from any location near to the computer.

Converted my CIMB Petronas Platinum Mastercard to CIMB Cash Rebate Platinum Mastercard

Recently, I have successfully converted my CIMB Petronas Platinum Mastercard to CIMB Cash Rebate Platinum MasterCard, and the process is more straightforward than I thought.

I just made a call to CIMB credit card customer service center to request for the card convertion, and upon approval (1 week later), the conversion was done and I received my new CIMB Cash Rebate Platinum MasterCard.

Sharing out my credit card conversion experience here:

• The credit balance of existing card will be transferred to the new card.
• The auto-payment arrangement (for utility, telco, etc.) with existing card is automatically carried across to the new card. The auto-payment seamlessly continues in the new card.
• The CIMB 0% Easy Pay instalment payment plan with the existing card seamlessly continues on the new card. 
• The CIMB Touch 'n Go Zing card that tied to the existing card will now be tied to the new card. I have successfully made an auto-reload to the Zing card just as before.
• The RM50 Government Service Tax period continues from the existing card, and will only be charged upon expiry.
• The new card has a new expiry date, which is later than the existing card.
• The CIMB Cash Rebate Platinum MasterCard is capped with a maximum credit limit of RM20k only. If your existing card has a higher credit limit, it will be reduced to RM20k.

Conclusion: with CIMB, if you want to switch from one card to another, you don't need to cut your existing card and apply for the new card. Just make a call to the customer service center to request for the conversion. You will need to verify your identity over the phone with some questions and answers, but the good news is, you don't even need to fill in any application form for the new card. The auto-payment, Easy Pay instalment and Touch 'n Go Zing will also be automatically migrated to the new card without any hassle on your side.

PDF Split and Merge (PDFsam), free tool to split, merge, extract, rotate, reorder pages in PDF files

If you want to extract a few pages from a PDF file to another PDF file, or you want to insert a few PDF pages (such as the cover page) into an existing PDF file, what tool will you use to accomplish that?

There are several commercial tools available, which require you to buy a license. There are also several shareware tools and online tools which imposed a lot of limitation to the PDF file, such as with an accepted maximum page of a small number only.

I am using a free tools with the open source GPL2 license to do this. It is called PDF Split and Merge (PDFsam) Basic, developed by an Italian guy Andrea Vacondio and his team.

PDF Split and Merge Basic is able to:

• Split your PDF documents (into chapters, single pages, etc.).
• Merge many PDF documents or subsections of them.
• Extract sections of your document into a single PDF document.
• Mix alternate pages taken from two PDF documents in straight or reverse order into a single document.
• Rotate pages of the selected PDF documents.
• Visually reorder pages of a selected PDF document.
• Visually compose a document dragging pages from selected PDF documents.
• Save and load your workspace to automate your recurrent jobs.
• Manage PDFsam settings and set a workspace to load at start up.

PDFsam is running on Java, and is cross-platform. You can run it on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and the developer has also created a trimmed down version called PDF Merge for Android.

It has a simple and clean user interface, making it pretty easy to use.

You can download PDFsam here: http://www.pdfsam.org/download/

There is also an Enhanced version of PDFsam, which the source code is available. The developer has requested for a donation of any amount, and he will provide you with the compiled executable file and installer.

The additional functions in PDFsam Enhanced version are:

• Encrypt your PDF files (RC40 bits, RC128 bits, AES128 bits) and set permissions on them.
• Add a PDF document as front page or addendum (or both) to your PDF documents.
• Mix alternate pages taken from two PDF documents in straight or reverse order into a single document.
• Extract attached files from a PDF document.
• Decrypt your PDF files.
• Set viewer options to tell the viewer application how should open the document.
• Set the metadata of a document (author, title, subject and keywords).

EPF declared 6.35% dividend for FY2013

With the approval from Minister of Finance, the Employees Provident Fund (EPF, a.k.a. Kumpulan Wang Simpanan Pekerja, KWSP)  declared on 16 February 2014 for the dividend rate of financial year ending 31 December 2013 to be 6.35%, representing a dividend payout of RM31.20 billion to its members, up 13.66% over the RM27.45 billion paid in FY2012.

EPF gross investment income from Malaysian Government Securities & Equivalents and from Loans & Bonds have decreased from previous year, while the income from Equities, Money Market Instruments and Real Estate & Infrastructure have increased.

 As the EPF membership rose to more than 13 million, a total of RM4.91 billion was required to pay every 1% dividend rate for 2013. This was 10.06% higher compared with RM4.46 billion paid for every 1% dividend rate for 2012. The amount needed to pay a 1% dividend would continue to grow between 8%-9% annually.

The Fund’s total overseas exposure constituted 20.97% of its total investment assets based on book value as at end December 2013, registering a rise from 16.98% the year before. During the year under review, the EPF had outsourced USD2.20 billion to the external fund managers for global equity mandates, while a total of RM2.25 billion and RM850 million were injected  into domestic fixed income and equity mandates respectively.

SMB and Media Server sharing of my external harddisk with TP-Link TL-WDR3600 router to PCs, tablets and TV box

I have just purchased a Transcend StoreJet 25A3 USB 3.0 1TB external harddisk from Lazada at the cost of  RM189 (with discounted price of RM219 and Lazada Chinese New Year voucher of RM30) and successfully shared it out with my TP-Link TL-WDR3600 router to my PC, laptops, Android tablets and HiMedia Q5II TV box using the SMB (Microsoft Server Message Block network file sharing protocol) as well as Media Server service.

This article is to record and share out my experience in setting up this external harddisk sharing.

By default, the Transcend StoreJet 25A3 is formatted with a single FAT32 partition occupying all its 1TB storage capacity. I learnt that the FAT32 partition type has the limitation in file size capped at a maximum of 4GB only. 4GB is just too small for partition image backup, for HD movie images and some other files which have big size.

I have tried to format the Transcend StoreJet 25A3 into different file systems, and here is my finding:

• NTFS - this is supported by my TL-WDR3600 router. However, it is not a preferred file system for Linux (which is used in the firmware of the router), and its read/write speed is slow.
• EXT2 - this is the most preferred file system for external harddisk connected to a Linux host. However, it is not supported by the stock firmware of my TL-WDR3600 router.
• EXT3 - this is basically EXT2 with a journalized file system. It is also not supported by the stock firmware of my TL-WDR3600 router.
• EXT4 - this is the most commonly used file system in Linux today. It is also not supported by the stock firmware of my TL-WDR3600 router.

As I need NTFS to store large files, and also FAT32 as a more stable file system for Linux host to store smaller files, I ended up formatting my Transcend StoreJet 25A3 into 2 primary partitions, one NTFS and another FAT32.

The harddisk partitioning and formatting was done using MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition, which is a free harddisk partition management software running on Windows that is capable of dealing with FAT32, NTFS, EXT2, EXT3 and EXT4 file systems. Most other Windows based partition management software can't deal with Linux file systems such as EXT2, EXT3, EXT4, etc.

After the partitioning and formatting, I made a Windows system image into the NTFS partition of the external harddisk, which is a crucial Windows restoration data that will be critically useful when the Windows system is corrupted (when infected by virus, critical system file is damaged, etc.). This can be done from within Windows 7 by going to Control Panel > System and Security > Backup and Restore > Create a System Image.

Then, I plugged the external harddisk into one of the USB port of my TL-WDR3600 router. Both the NTFS and FAT32 partitions are detected and ready to be shared out.

The stock TP-Link firmware supports USB file sharing using SMB (Storage Sharing), FTP (FTP Server) and Media Server.

Once a folder with photos, videos and/or music is shared out using Media Server, the TP-Link router will be detected as one of the Media Devices in the Network section of Windows 7, and the shared media files are accessible from there. They are also accessible from UPNP media access in HiMedia Q5II TV box.

As for the SMB sharing, it is accessible from Windows by opening Windows Explorer and key-in "\\tplinklogin.net" in the address bar. It is also accessible from Android devices by installing apps that is able to access SMB server, such as ES File Explorer. It is accessible from HiMedia Q5II TV box from SMB media access using the IP address of the router running the SMB service. You need to start the Samba service of the TV box in its Settings page before searching for the SMB server.

For easier future access, I have also mapped a drive in my Windows PC to the shared external harddisk partition.

I heard that the Asus RT-AC68U router supports USB sharing with Linux partition format. You can also add support for EXT2, EXT3, EXT4 in TP-Link router's USB sharing with custom firmware such as OpenWRT. There is reason why I didn't changed my TL-WDR3600 router to use custom firmware, which you can read here.

Updated my HTC One to Android 4.4.2 (KitKat) with Sense 5.5

My HTC One received its OTA update from Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean) to Android 4.4.2 (KitKat) yesterday (7 February 2014).

The Sense UI version remains as 5.5, so there is not much changes to the UI from previous version in this update.

Here are some of the noticeable changes found in this update:

• The battery bar in the battery icon changed colour from green (as in Android 4.3) to white.
• There is a new icon for the Quick Settings screen called HTC Mini+ which can configure the phone to pair up with a HTC Mini+ device.

• In Settings > Wireless & Networks, we can set the Default SMS app for the phone.

• BlinkFeed can restrict auto refresh to use WiFi only. Can also configure for offline news reading. Its menu is now accessed by swiping from left side of the BlinkFeed screen.

• New Location settings screen. The GPS toggle is controlled by the Mode setting here. Anyhow, you can still toggle GPS sensor on/off with the Quick Settings icon as it is still available as before.

• Change in Gallery app and Music app.
• Camera screen showing estimated video time and number of photos that can be taken with current storage available. The notorious purple-tint problem is still there, but seems to have improved from previous version (HTC One with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean has the worst purple-tint issue, worse than 4.2 and 4.4)
• Built in support for Google Cloud printing. You can find a new Printing item in Settings menu.

• New settings for Do Not Disturb found inside Sound settings.

• Can switch over to QWERTY keyboard from the T9 keyboard in call dialer, and vice-versa.

What determines the salary of employees

Have you wonder what determines the salary of employees?

In my point of view, the lower limit of the salary is the price offered by employer so that the employee will stay put with the company, and the upper limit is the cost of the company to remain competitive in the business.

If the salary is on the low side compared with market rate, the employee will have a lot of options, including:

• to join another employer who offer a better package
• to self-employ
• to stay at home

If the employer is paying a high salary, the cost of maintaining the company will be high, and that need to be compensated with either one or more of the following:

• to charge higher price for goods/services provided to customers
• to tolerate a lower profit margin
• to cut cost from existing operations
• to get more customers and/or sell more goods/services to existing customers

If the company charge higher price to customers, the customers might have options to buy from another company, or just not to buy.

If the company tolerate a lower profit margin, that will bring down the net profit, and in turn, lower down the dividend to shareholders/investors.

If the company try to cut cost from existing operations, it might need to sacrifice the quality and/or quantity of goods/services produced, which in turn reduce the customers satisfaction level, and the customers might have options to buy from another company, or just not to buy.

So, it is a rule of thumb that salary cannot be too low, or else the employees will part away. At the same time, it cannot be too high until the business is unsustainable.

The salary is indeed directly related to the productivity of the employee. A productive employee will be able to help the company generates more quantity and quality of goods/services that is saleable to customers, which can realized into sales and profit.

So, its seems that the only feasible option for sustainability is "to get more customers and/or sell more goods/services to existing customers" which needs to be backed up by the productivity of the employees. If the employees are not productive enough, the employer will need to hire more employees, which will then share out the HR salary budget of the company.

The more productive employees deserve higher salary, because competitors are willing to pay for that to bring over the employees to work with them. The supply and demand in job market will naturally drive the salary of productive employees.

In the investment world, there is a common indicator called Price/Earning (P/E) ratio to evaluate the worthiness for investor to buy and hold a share. Perhaps in the mind of the employers, there is also a Salary/Productivity ratio to evaluate the worthiness for the company to employ and maintain the employee.

As an employee, if you want to have high salary, then you need to:

• be productive
• join a highly productive company that is very profitable (driven by its productivity)

If you are not very productive and get a high salary, the good time might not be for long. If your company is very profitable but not supported by productivity, the good time might also not be for long.

During the 80's when Dr. Mahathir just became the prime minister, Malaysia is on the right track by emphasizing on productivity to boost the nation's economy, particularly the GDP. It seems that the current government has completely lost track by intervening the pricing of certain goods/services (instead of letting the free competition supply-demand factor to drive the price), intervening the salary with minimum wage, intervening the supply-demand by imposing restrictions that is non-productivity related, etc. Is there any hope that we will be on the right track again, and who will be the long waited hero to put back the right track in place?

KFC Golden Wrap Chicken promotion set

On the way back to hometown for my Chinese New Year holiday, I stopped by Tapah R&R (Rehat & Rawat) station for dinner, and found a new menu item in KFC - the Golden Wrap Chicken (纸包鸡) with new Orleans flavour.

Golden Wrap Chicken is a Cantonese recipe, and is a famous dish of several Chinese restaurants (of Leong Ya (梁雅) family) in Seri Kembangan and Puchong, Selangor.

Last year around Chinese New Year, KFC Malaysia offerred their first Golden Wrap Chicken promotion set for a limited time, but I didn't try it.

Now, the Golden Wrap Chicken is back to KFC Malaysia and also some other places including KFC Taiwan. There is a change in its recipe too. Last year the KFC Golden Wrap Chicken is cooked together with mushrooms and corns, and this year, the corns are gone, and it has a new Orleans flavour.

The RM9.95 KFC Golden Wrap Chicken Combo set comes with 2 pieces of paper wrapped chicken and 1 large cup of Revive isotonic drink. There is another RM39.90 Golden Wrap Feast set available, which has more items.

I personally found the KFC Golden Wrap Chicken tastes even better than their fried chicken. It worth a try.

Streaming internet live TV, movie, drama, etc. to Android TV box with Togic and music video, MTV, etc. with Rainbow

If you have a China made Android TV box such as HiMedia and you are located outside China, you will probably experience that the live TV, movie, drama, show, etc. often don't stream smoothly even though you have a high speed broadband Internet.

One of the way to overcome this with HiMedia Q-series Android TV box is to manually pick to use the server in Hong Kong (default is automatically picked, and all other servers are located inside China).

I found that the 3rd party app called Togic liveTV (泰捷视频) works well internationally too. It also has a location setting which we need to set to Hong Kong - Hong Kong. It will then help us to choose the best streaming source, and most of the time, I am able to watch HD programme or HD movie with Togic without any lag in transmission.

Togic is actively maintained. The app has frequent new version update, and its video sources are updated on daily basis. You can always find the latest episode of TV show or drama in Togic. The movies are quite up-to-date too.

If you like to watch music video or sing KTV, you will probably find that most music video app produced in China does not work well outside China. You will even get error message when trying to watch the music video, stating that the video cannot be played at your region due to copyright problem.

However, there is one called Rainbow (彩虹音乐) which works well internationally. They claim that their music videos are licensed by original copyright holders.

The above are 2 of my favourite apps in my HiMedia Q5II dual-core Android TV box.

If you have come across with other good apps for Android TV box, feel free to share with me.

Upgraded my HiMedia Q5II Android TV box firmware to Mango Hi Q v1.0.5

My HiMedia Q5II Android TV box comes with firmware v1.0.2 (released in early September 2013). Subsequent to that, they have released firmware v1.0.3 in October 2013 and v1.0.4 in December 2013. Both of them were found buggy with numerous complaints from users.

In January 2014, HiMedia has worked together with Mango TV (芒果 TV) to come out with Mango Hi Q (芒果嗨Q) firmware v1.0.5 which is pretty good.

You can download the Mango Hi Q firmware for HiMedia Q-series dual core Android TV boxes here.

Make sure you download the firmware that matches with the model number of your HiMedia Q-series dual core Android TV box. If the label on your box has the wording of "eMMC" (which is the newer version sold to the market since November 2013 onwards), download the firmware for EMMC version. Otherwise, download the firmware for non-EMMC version.

The firmware upgrade file for my non-EMMC HiMedia Q5II Android TV box is update_dualcore_Q5.zip. I put it in a USB drive, plug the USB drive into one of the USB port of the TV box, and tried to flash it into the box by using a pin to press its "reset" button and boot up the box. The upgrade failed. Apparently this is due to the firmware that pre-installed in my box is English version instead of Chinese version.

I then renamed the file in my USB drive to become update_dualcore_Q5_en.zip, and tried again. This time, the upgrade is successful, and I got Mango Hi Q v1.0.5 in my box.

The default language of Mango H Q user interface is Chinese. You can set it to English by going to Settings (the right most tab at the bottom of above screen), look for Language and Input Method (the icon is a square box with an "A" at the center), change the Language ("语言") to English.

After you installed Mango Hi Q firmware, you will notice the following are missing:

• HiTV
• LiveTV
• HiStore
• Google Play Store
• Web browser

You can restore back HiTV, LiveTV by download and install this APK into your TV box:

http://down.hinavi.net/apk/HiTV_mvc.apk

Alternatively, you can download and install the Jailbreak APK into your TV box, and run it once: http://pan.baidu.com/s/1eQDWWT0

After that, you can remove the Jailbreak APK.

You can also restore back the built-in web browser through the pre-installed WiFi Analyzer app. Just go to Online Help in WiFi Analyzer once, and the web browser will be back.

As for the missing HiStore and Google Play Store, I use 7PO Market (奇珀市场) as alternative.

Windows XP end of life on April 2014

Microsoft has once again announced that they will terminate the technical support for Windows XP, with a firmed date on 8 April 2014.

This means that they will no longer release new bug fixes and security patches for Windows XP after the deadline. Technical assistances for Windows XP will also be ceased. They will also stop providing Microsoft Security Essentials for download on Windows XP on that date.

Anyhow, Microsoft will continue to provide updates to anti-malware signatures and engine for existing Microsoft Security Essentials running on Windows XP until 14 July 2015. This security support deadline also applies to System Center Endpoint Protection, Forefront Client Security, Forefront Endpoint Protection and Windows Intune running on Windows XP for enterprise users.

On 13 July 2010, Microsoft ended their support to Windows 2000, which was once widely used in enterprise as well as in banks' ATM machines, retailers' Point-of-Sale (POS) systems, etc. Since then, Windows XP has replaced Windows 2000 to become the de-facto standard for embedded operating system of those ATM machines, POS systems, etc.

The ATM machines, POS systems, etc. that use the stripped-down version of Windows XP known as Windows XP Embedded will still get support from Microsoft until 12 January 2016, two more years to go before the embedded OS reaches its end of life.

According to NetMarketShare website, Windows XP is still the world's 2nd mostly used desktop operation system in the world to date, commanding a market share of more than 28%. The top desktop operation system is Windows 7 with more than 47% market share.

If you still have any computer running on Windows XP, you can still continue to use it after 8 April 2014, but any new security vulnerability would not be fixed by Microsoft. There will still be 3rd party security and antivirus software continue to provide protection to your Windows XP computer.

If you plan for an upgrade, the most popular Windows 7 is a good choice and its end of life date is set to 14 January 2020, 6 more years to go. Of course, you can also consider the latest Windows 8 which received a lot of criticisms.

Alternatively, you might want to switch over to the Apple's world using Mac OS X as operating system. Apple iMac and MacBook has regained popularity upon the success of iPhone and iPad over the past few years.

For PC users, you can also switch over to Linux operating system. Ubuntu Desktop is a famous one and it is free. Ubuntu has a shorter end of life than Windows, whereby its Long Term Support (LTS) versions receive support from Canonical for 5 years only. However, you can always upgrade your PC to the latest version of Ubuntu for free.

For manufacturers and vendors of ATM machines, POS systems, they are most likely switching over to Linux or Android operating system, and say bye-bye to Microsoft. Android has gained its popularity as embedded system, particularly in TV boxes, car navigation systems, etc.

Lazada launches iOS app for iPhone / iPad with RM30 voucher given to downloaders

A good news for Apple mobile devices users!

Lazada, the e-commerce online shopping website in Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Phillipines) that is established by the famous German-based international online business incubator Rocket Internet GmbH, is going to launch their Lazada iOS app for iPhone/iPad on 16 January 2014.

Lazada online shopping website at http://www.lazada.com.my was launched in Malaysia in April 2012. Initially, they faced quite a lot of hiccups and customer complaints, particularly in year 2012. My recent 2 purchases with them (one done in year 2013, one in 2014) convinced me that they have improved a lot, because I received my goods promptly with friendly email and SMS delivery status update, and the whole buying experience is good.

Lazada has already launched their Android app in June 2013. To date, the Lazada app for Android received more than 100k installs since August 2013, but yet to hit the 500k installs target.

In conjunction with the launching of Lazada iOS app, you will get a RM30 voucher if you download the app from Apple iTunes App Store and install it on your Apple mobile device.

Click the ads below to download the Lazada iOS app.



Note that the offer is valid for 3 days only for downloads between 16-18 January 2014. The RM30 voucher can only be used via the iOS app. The terms and conditions for this promo is available after you clicked on the ads above.

Lazada plans to surprise three lucky shoppers who have made a purchase through the new app by giving away three vouchers worth RM500. This lucky draw is eligible to shoppers purchasing using the app from 19 to 31 January 2014.

For Android users, you can also download the Lazada App for Android here.

If you want to shop using the Lazada e-commerce website, please click the Lazada ads on the right of this webpage.

The pros and cons of WiFi frequencies 2.4GHz and 5GHz

Nowadays all WiFi access points (APs) or wireless network routers work on the 2.4GHz band of wireless frequency, while the newer dual-band devices also support the 5GHz band.

The WiFi standards that work on 2.4GHz band are:

• 802.11b (speed is up to 11Mbps)
• 802.11g (speed is up to 54Mbps)
• 802.11n (speed is up to 150Mbps for 20MHz channel width, 300Mbps for 40MHz channel width)

The WiFi standards that work on 5GHz band are:

• 802.11a (speed is up to 54Mbps)
• 802.11n (speed is up to 150Mbps for 20MHz channel width, 300Mbps for 40MHz channel width)
• 802.11ac (speed can reach 6.8Gbps with 8 antennas running at 160Mhz channel width)

For the dual-band WiFi AP or router, you can turn on either one of the frequency bands, or turn on both of them at the same time.

The pros / advantages of 2.4GHz band:

• Has a wider signal coverage area.
• Better penetration through walls and physical barriers.
• WiFi b/g/n supported by all wireless devices

The cons / disadvantages of 2.4GHz band:

• As most of the WiFi devices are using this band, it could be congested with a lot of interference if there are a lot of WiFi devices nearby.
• Out of its 13 available channels, only Channel 1, 6, 11 are not overlapping.
• Might get interference from microwave ovens, Bluetooth devices, wireless keyboard/mouse, cordless phones, etc. which are also operate on 2.4GHz frequency band.

The pros / advantages of 5GHz band:

• At the mean time, few WiFi devices are using this band, so it is less congested with much lesser interference.
• Has 23 non-overlapping available channels.
• Supports much higher network speed with 802.11ac standard.

The cons / disadvantages of 5GHz band:

• Has smaller signal coverage area.
• Poor penetration power through walls and physical barriers.
• Older wireless devices might not be able to work on this band.
• Might get interference from radar which also operates on 5GHz frequency band.

Below is the WiFi signals detected in a shopping mall. You can see how congested is the 2.4GHz band and how clear is the 5GHz band. Congestion and interference can cause wireless connection problems such as intermittent connection lost, slow speed, unable to establish connection with AP, etc.

I am sure you will get similar result at your office or in your residence when your neighbours are also using WiFi.

If you have mobile devices that can work on 5GHz band and you have a dual-band AP/router, you might probably want to turn on both of them to get the best of both worlds.

Auspicious dates for ground-breaking of new building construction in 2014

Here is the list of auspicious dates in year 2014 for ground-breaking ceremony (动土) of new building construction. It is produced based on the Chinese almanac Tong Shu. (Click the image to enlarge)

Bear in mind that although the Tong Shu is a compilation of Chinese astrology and calendaring studies gathering wisdom of thousands of years, we should use it wisely and rationally, but not be too superstitious on it.

You might probably be interested to also find out the auspicious dates in 2014 for:

• Wedding / Marriage
• Marriage proposal / engagement
• Renovation
• Moving to new house/office
• Housewarming / Open house / Party / Gathering
• Business opening
• Signing contract / register for marriage / receive baptism
• Start new job / assignment
• Baby first haircut (Mundan)
• Getting baby / conception planning / Caesarian delivery

You might probably be interested to also find out for:

• Inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2014
• Auspicious dates for wedding/marriage in 2015
• Inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2015

The historical relationship between FIFA World Cup and stock market performance

The 2014 FIFA World Cup soccer tournament will take place in Brazil from 12 June until 13 July 2014. Have you wonder what will be its immediate impact to the stock market before, during, and after the tournament?

Based on historical charts of Dow Jones and KLCI from 1990 until today, I have summarized the stock market performance in US and Malaysia during the years with FIFA World Cup, for the short period of early May to end July. The FIFA World Cup normally held in summer of northern hemisphere (around June) and last for about a month.

Here is the summarized chart (click to enlarge):

Based on historical stock market performance, in the US market, there is equal chance to be sideline (yellow box), trending up (green box), or trending down (red box) before and during the FIFA World Cup tournament. After the tournament, it is very likely to go down. Historically from 1990-2010, only 2006 US market goes up after the tournament.

For the Malaysian stock market, it has high chance of going down before the tournament, sideline during the tournament, and going up after the tournament.

These are the considerations during the FIFA time which might affect the stock market performance:

• Retail participants in stock market might allocate their time and money to football gambling, therefore temporary gone out of the stock market.
• In Malaysia, as FIFA held in western host country happens at mid-night, the market participants who watch the matches during mid-night might be sleeping during market opening time, or not having enough concentration to the market.
• The FIFA news will overwhelm other news, including industry and business news.

So, what will happen to the stock market this year around FIFA time? Let's wait and see.

Pro features in Timely Alarm Clock App for Android set free by Google after they acquired Bitspin

It is officially announced that Google has recently acquired Bitspin, the small Switzerland company founded by some ETH Zurich's computer science graduates.

Source: http://www.bitspin.ch/google

Bitspin produces the famous beautiful Android app called Timely Alarm Clock, which has accumulated more than 1 million downloads within a year.

Timely is available for free in Google Play store, and now its in-app purchase features are also made free. Good news to all that haven't purchased the in-app features, and bad news for those who already spent some money on the app.

Online emulator website to demo OpenWRT LuCI, DD-WRT, Gargoyle, Tomato, TP-Link, Asus, Linksys, D-Link, Belkin, Cisco SB, Mikrotik, Netgear and Sonicwall wireless router firmware GUI

If you are looking for an online emulator to let you try out the web interface of wireless router firmwares including OpenWRT LuCI, DD-WRT, Gargoyle, Tomato Advanced and stock firmware for TP-Link, Asus, Linksys, D-Link, Belkin, Cisco Small Business Online Device, Mikrotik, Netgear, they are actually available in the Internet.

This is particularly useful if you intend to flash your wireless router's stock firmware to an alternative, and you want to evaluate the functionality and looks-and-feels of such firmwares before finalizing your decision.

This is also useful if you intend to buy a new wireless router, and still indecisive among Netgear, TP-Link, Asus, Linksys or D-Link.

Here are the URLs to the respective wireless router online emulators:

• OpenWRT LuCI web interface:
  http://dede67.bplaced.net/OpenWrtFreifunk/OpenWrtSim/OpenWrt%20-%20Overview%20-%20LuCI.xhtml
• DD-WRT:
  http://router-firmware-test.gamma.nu/DD-WRT/index.html
• Gargoyle Router Management Utility:
  http://router-firmware-test.gamma.nu/Gargoyle/index.html
• Tomato Advanced:
  https://advancedtomato.com/demo/status-overview.asp
• TP-Link:
  https://www.tp-link.com/en/emulators.html
• Asus:
  http://demoui.asus.com/index.asp
• Linksys:
  http://ui.linksys.com/
• D-Link:
  http://support.dlink.ca/emulators/wbr2310/index.htm
• Belkin:
  http://ui.belkin.com/
• Cisco Small Business Online Devices:
  https://community.cisco.com/t5/small-business-online-device/bd-p/911-discussions-online-device-emulators
• Mikrotik:
  http://demo.mt.lv/
• Netgear:
  http://tools.netgear.com/landing/gui/security/fvs318v3/simulators/FVS318v3v3.0_19/default.htm
• SonicWall:
  https://nsa2650.demo.sonicwall.com/

Stay Free From Credit Card Debts

With a new year dawning, it’s time to establish a relatively clean start. Whether or not you have old credit card debts, it’s best to make a conscious decision to avoid accumulating new debts in 2014.

While some may argue that incurring credit card is unavoidable, a measure of self-control and discipline goes a long way in allowing you to maintain your finances in a manageable state. Here are a few ways in which you can stay debt free (relatively) this 2014:

1. Lessen Credit Card Use

This is a no-brainer. While a more obvious answer would be to not use your credit card at all, we all know that that is not a realistic course of action. After all, credit cards exist for a specific reason. What is realistic is controlling your credit card usage to avoid overspending. Use your card only when it is the only option available, and even then mentally weigh if using your credit card is actually necessary. Lessening your actual use of the card lessens any possible debt you might get.

 

2. Prepare for Emergencies

Set aside some money so you can have an emergency fund. By having money prepared for unforeseen events and expenditures, you can dip into that emergency fund instead of reaching for your credit card.

 

3. Charge Within Your Means

If you do need to use your credit card, then use it for transactions you know you can afford. Keep in mind how much you’re actually purchasing and be sure to pay for your credit card bill in a timely manner, avoiding penalties, and interest fees.

 

4. Always Pay in Full

Credit card debts accumulate when you constantly have a balance that’s carried over in the following months. Make sure you place yourself in a state wherein you can afford to pay your monthly bill in full in order to avoid being burdened by long-term debts. Always be aware of what you have to pay and manage your finances accordingly. Remember, huge debts sometimes begin with small but neglected debts.

 

5. Try to Avoid Taking Out Cash Advances

Cash advances are very convenient, and that is why credit cardholders have a tendency to overdo them. Remember that just because you have the option to take out a cash advance doesn’t mean that you have to take that option. A cash advance is simply you borrowing money, and that results—obviously—in debt. Work on your financial situation to ensure that taking out a cash advance will never be necessary. (The aforementioned emergency fund is a great way to do this.)

 

6. Be Careful With Who You Allow to Use the Card

Some people are in credit card debt because someone else overused their card. This is something you can avoid simply by either being careful with who you give access to your credit card account, or just by simply not allowing anyone else to use your card.

 

7. Understand Your Credit Card Account

Ignorance is never an excuse, particularly when it comes to money. When you sign up for a credit card, that’s a financial commitment, and it’s your responsibility to know every detail of every term and condition that financial commitment has. In order for you to not be straddled with credit card debt, it’s always best to know what you’re entitled to and what you’re responsible for. That way, you know which mistakes you cannot afford to make when it comes to your credit card usage.

 

All in all, just be responsible with your credit card use and credit card debt would be the least of your worries. By taking the initiative to avoid credit card debt in the coming year, you can ensure yourself a more financially stable 2014.

Note: This is a guest post by Money Hero,  a Hong Kong’s leading financial comparison website which helps its readers to compare a broad range of financial products online - from credit cards to insurance plans.

JuiceSSH the free SSH client for Android developed by Linux system admins

SSH client is an essential tool for us to have remote access to the command line console of Linux/Android/Unix system, be it a server or network device that we manage, or our own personal computer, or a TV box, etc.

In Windows system, most of us use PuTTY or similar SSH client to remotely connect to our Linux/Android/Unix system. Beside Windows, there are PuTTY for Symbian, Windows Mobile, iPhone, ... but where is the PuTTY for Android?

Nowadays we tend to carry a smartphone, perhaps together with a tablet with us, more often than carrying a laptop. In order to practically work on the text-based SSH terminal, the smartphone need to have a large screen, and smartphone that fulfil this requirement is very likely an Android phone. Perhaps the tablet that we carry with us is also an Android tablet. Therefore, the market demand for a good SSH client for Android is definitely there, and JuiceSSH that I'm going to introduce here is among the best I found so far.

With a good SSH client in our Android device, we can access to the server, network equipment or computer anytime, anywhere for emergency troubleshooting, configuration, administration, etc.

JuiceSSH is an all-in-one terminal client for Android. Beside Secure Shell (SSH), it also supports Mobile Shell (MOSH), Local Shell and the unencrypted Telnet. Support for file transfer with SCP and SFTP is in the pipeline. With Local Shell support, you can get into the command line console of your Android device.

JuiceSSH is developed by Paul Maddox (a Linux system architect) and Tom Maddox (a system administrator). Being frequent SSH users themselves, I believe they know well about what their users want. For example, JuiceSSH has a popup keyboard on top of the Android keyboard for the command line commonly used Esc key, arrow keys, PgUp, PgDown, etc.

JuiceSSH has a full colour terminal that supports UTF-8 characters (including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc.). It also supports copy and paste within the session. It will open the web browser when an URL shown on its screen is tapped.

If you deal a lot with Linux/Android/Unix system, this is a good tool for you in your Android devices.

The actual return of my Manulife investment-linked insurance after about 13 years of regular premium payments

My first investment-linked insurance is purchased with John Hancock (later acquired by Manulife and now known as Manulife) in April 2000.

Every month, I have to pay RM120 to the insurance company for the sum assured of RM30,000, and the bank will charge me RM1 for auto-debit from my savings account to Manulife. I was told that Manulife does not accept auto premium payment by credit card. Anyhow, I have added in this RM1 to the cost of this insurance, so its monthly payment is RM121.

Of course, the sum assured of RM30,000 is too small an amount. I have a much larger sum assured in another whole life saving assurance with cash bonus policy to cover up my protection need, which is out of topic here.

Every end of year since 2007, I have the habit of login to Manulife eLITE Customer Service System to check and record down my investment-linked return, and here is my record from 2007 to 2013.

As you can see, every month my premium paid will be invested into Equity Fund (40%) and Managed Fund (60%). The admin fee, insurance fee, etc. will also be deducted from the invested units accordingly.

Today (31 December 2013), I have paid a total amount of RM18,513 for this investment-linked insurance, and my return is RM30,507.62 which translates to 64.79% gain of total premium paid, annualized to 5.08% per year. (This is a rough annualized calculation, the more precise annual return is around 5.58%)

This return is better than putting the money in fixed deposit, not to forget that on top of the actual return, I still have a protection of up to RM30,000 for death, TPD, etc.

However, it also shows that the actual return is lower than the projected return that the insurance agent shown to me 13 years ago.

My actual return in investment-linked insurance as shown in the table above should be good enough to tell you that, don't expect too much return from investment-linked insurance. As my age grow, the insurance charges will also become higher and higher, which will erode into the invested portion of premium paid. I probably will surrender this insurance policy and get back my return around the age of 55-60.

For me, the best investment option is still directly invest in stock market. I can't imagine after 13 years, the money still unable to double up. In my own stock market investment, that return figure should have added one more digit behind.

Changed the firmware of my TP-Link TL-WDR3600 router from stock to OpenWRT then back to stock again

Recently, I have successfully changed the firmware of my TP-Link TL-WDR3600 router from stock to OpenWRT Attitude Adjustment (12.09 final). After some times, I decided to changed back the firmware to TP-Link stock Malaysia firmware version 3.13.32 Build 130723 Rel.9433n again.

The reason for me to make a move to OpenWRT firmware includes:

• There is no way to have an SSH terminal access to the router to gain more access and control to it.
• The 5GHz WiFi powered by stock firmware is auto-selected by my dual-band mobile devices within a short distance only. When the device is more than 5 meters from the router, it will auto-select the 2.4GHz WiFi instead.
• There is very little information and logging on real-time connections and bandwidth usage.
• The bandwidth control function is very basic, and lack of QoS functions.
• IPv6 is not supported by the Malaysian version of stock firmware yet.
• The stock firmware doesn't have VPN function. The router is unable to act as VPN server or connect to another VPN server as client.

It is pretty easy to convert the stock firmware of TP-Link TL-WDR3600 to OpenWRT Attitude Adjustment. The steps are as follow:

• Go to http://downloads.openwrt.org/attitude_adjustment/12.09/ar71xx/generic/ and download the OpenWRT firmware with SquashFS file system. If you select the firmware with JFFS2 file system, the steps below might not be applicable, and you might brick your router if you don't know what you are doing. The file to download for TP-Link TL-WDR3600 is: openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-wdr3600-v1-squashfs-factory.bin
• Backup current stock firmware settings by going to Backup & Restore and click the Backup button. If you haven't performed any backup to the firmware settings, you will need to manually configure back all the settings later if you decide to revert back to stock firmware.
• Do a factory reset to the existing stock firmware by going to System Tools > Factory Defaults and click the Restore button.
• Flash the downloaded OpenWRT firmware by going to Firmware Upgrade section of stock firmware and select the openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-wdr3600-v1-squashfs-factory.bin file just downloaded.
• When the firmware is successfully converted to OpenWRT, you can access its LuCI web interface by going to http://192.168.1.1 and login as "root" with no password.
• Before you do anything, perform a factory reset to the newly flashed OpenWRT firmware.
• To setup OpenWRT to work with TM Unifi, you can refer to this article here: http://klseet.com/index.php/tl-wr1043nd-ver18/setup-for-unifi-10031-rc6

With OpenWRT firmware, I am able to access the router with SSH. OpenWRT is modular, and you can add new function/feature by installing new packages in System > Software section. I have played around with monitoring tool, VPN, QoS, print server, DLNA server, and some other features.

However, I am unable to make its IPv6 to work, despite installing all the required IPv6 packages. It is either Unifi IPv6 is not implemented in my area yet, or I haven't managed to figure out how to configure IPv6 in OpenWRT to make it work.

With OpenWRT, I managed to configure the router to deliver a better 5GHz WiFi network with further reach. The 2.4GHz WiFi network is also able to stay in higher connection bandwidth with my mobile devices. However, I find that the WiFi configured by me on OpenWRT is not so stable, and after some times, some of my mobile devices are unable to establish connection with the router, unless I reboot the router and sometimes also need to reboot the mobile device.

After about 2 weeks of usage, I somehow concluded that the engineers at TP-Link have actually did a good job in tweaking and optimizing the firmware for this router, despite more improvement is needed in the area of WiFi, QoS, VPN support, and IPv6 for Malaysian version of firmware.

I decided to revert back to stock firmware due to the reason of:

• Only the stock firmware supports hardware NAT.
• It takes a few steps to configure something in OpenWRT, which can be easily configured in stock firmware with a single step.
• To gain back the stable WiFi, despite a weaker 5GHz range.
• To gain back the 2 years warranty of the router (just in case...)
• The stock firmware is already good enough for me.
• IPv6 is currently something good to have, but is not a must. Hopefully it will be included in future stock firmware upgrade.
• The physical switch behind the router to toggle WiFi on/off is only working with stock firmware.

The steps to convert the OpenWRT firmware in TP-Link TL-WDR3600 router to stock firmware is as follow:

• Download the version of stock firmware that is compatible to replace OpenWRT with ease here: http://www.tplink.com/resources/software/TL-WDR3600_V1_130129.zip. If you choose other version of stock firmware, it might not work, and you might brick your router if you don't know what you are doing.
• Unzip the file to get the stock firmware upgrade file wdr3600v1_en_3_13_26_up(130129).bin.
• Backup current OpenWRT firmware settings, just in case you want to use back OpenWRT again in the future. If you haven't performed any backup to the firmware settings, you will need to manually configure back all the settings later if you decide to return back to OpenWRT again.
• Do a factory reset to the OpenWRT firmware.
• Flash the TP-Link stock firmware wdr3600v1_en_3_13_26_up(130129).bin to the TL-WDR3600 router.
• Once you get back to the stock firmware, perform a factory reset again.
• You can now proceed to upgrade the stock firmware to its latest version. If you need the Malaysia version of firmware to support for Unifi or Maxis Home Fibre Internet, download the latest firmware from http://www.tp-link.com.my/support/download/?model=TL-WDR3600&version=V1.
• Restore the stock firmware settings from your backup that you have done earlier.
• If your Internet is not working yet after restoration, go to Quick Setup and run through the steps there. The VLAN settings should be properly restored now.

Auspicious dates for signing contract, register for marriage, etc. in 2014

Here is the list of auspicious dates in year 2014 for signing contract, signing offer letter, register for marriage, receiving religious baptism, and other similar agreement-related activities. It is produced based on the Chinese almanac Tong Shu.

Bear in mind that although the Tong Shu is a compilation of Chinese astrology and calendaring studies gathering wisdom of thousands of years, we should use it wisely and rationally, but not be too superstitious on it.

You might probably be interested to also find out the auspicious dates in 2014 for:

• Wedding / Marriage
• Marriage proposal / engagement
• Renovation
• Moving to new house/office
• Housewarming / Open house / Party / Gathering
• Business opening
• Signing contract / register for marriage / receive baptism
• Start new job / assignment
• Baby first haircut (Mundan)
• Getting baby / conception planning / Caesarian delivery

You might probably be interested to also find out for:

• Inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2014
• Auspicious dates for wedding/marriage in 2015
• Inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2015

Auspicious dates for housewarming, open house, party, gathering, etc. in 2014

Here is the list of auspicious dates in 2014 for organizing and hosting meet-up with friends and/or relatives (会友), which is produced based on the Chinese almanac Tong Shu.

The dates are applicable for housewarming, open house, home party, gathering, potluck, and any other similar functions to meet up with friends and/or relatives. (Click the image to enlarge)

Bear in mind that although the Tong Shu is a compilation of Chinese astrology and calendaring studies gathering wisdom of thousands of years, we should use it wisely and rationally, but not be too superstitious on it.

You might probably be interested to also find out the auspicious dates in 2014 for:

• Wedding / Marriage
• Marriage proposal / engagement
• Renovation
• Moving to new house/office
• Housewarming / Open house / Party / Gathering
• Business opening
• Signing contract / register for marriage / receive baptism
• Start new job / assignment
• Baby first haircut (Mundan)
• Getting baby / conception planning / Caesarian delivery

You might probably be interested to also find out for:

• Inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2014
• Auspicious dates for wedding/marriage in 2015
• Inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2015

Auspicious dates for renovation in 2014

Here is the list of auspicious dates for renovation in year 2014, which is produced based on the Chinese almanac Tong Shu. (Click the image to enlarge)

Bear in mind that although the Tong Shu is a compilation of Chinese astrology and calendaring studies gathering wisdom of thousands of years, we should use it wisely and rationally, but not be too superstitious on it.

If you are going to renovate your house, don't forget to visit the "home idea" section of my blog to find out some of my sharing there.

You might probably be interested to also find out the auspicious dates in 2014 for:

• Wedding / Marriage
• Marriage proposal / engagement
• Renovation
• Moving to new house/office
• Housewarming / Open house / Party / Gathering
• Business opening
• Signing contract / register for marriage / receive baptism
• Start new job / assignment
• Baby first haircut (Mundan)
• Getting baby / conception planning / Caesarian delivery

You might probably be interested to also find out for:

• Inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2014
• Auspicious dates for wedding/marriage in 2015
• Inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2015